“The 9[am] to 5[pm]” is a common term for one’s regular job, on the basis that normal people start work at 09:00 and finish at 17:00. I’ve worked a few jobs and closest I’ve ever gotten to this is 08:00 to 17:00, which I gather is standard.
Are there real jobs where people actually start at 9 and finish at 5?
Kind-of. Researcher in EU, the funding source on paper mandates 7.6 hrs of work per day, so with lunch breaks it is almost exactly 09:00 - 17:00
Depending on whom you ask academia may or may not be considered a real job though… and my hours may be nice, but the folks who do experiments rarely get the 9-5 as stated on paper, and there are other aspects of the job that are much more fucked up